Monday, February 19, 2007

You might wish to discuss this article on your blog. The article traces the
development of MNC’s up to the present. It is a celebration of the MNCs and
their positive impact on globalization.

Unfortunately, Palisiano (CEO of IBM) does not address the issue of corporate
power in distorting the market place and in controlling governments themselves
(think K Street). Nor does he seriously address the rising global inequality of
wealth (think sweat shop labor).

Nor does he address the issue of global warming, environmental decay, and
resource depletion—and the ability of MNC’s to cast doubt on the seriousness of
these issues. All of these issues are the dark underside of globalization, on
which I tend to focus. He frames the discussion in such a way as to avoid these
issues—most economists follow his lead.

Anyway, the article is worth discussing. Most economists would agree with
Palisano. ...

I'm a bit rushed until much later today and can't do much with this, so, quickly, here's the
beginning and end of the article along with a link to the whole thing.
Hopefully, some of you can provide analysis:

The corporation has evolved constantly during its long history. The MNC of
the late twentieth century had little in common with the international firms of
a hundred years earlier, and those companies were very different from the great
trading enterprises of the 1700s. The type of business organization that is now
emerging—the globally integrated enterprise—marks just as big a leap.

Many parties to the globalization debate mistakenly project into the future a
picture of corporations that is unchanged from that of today or yesterday. This
happens as often among free-market advocates as it does among people opposed to
globalization. But businesses are changing in fundamental ways—structurally,
operationally, culturally—in response to the imperatives of globalization and
new technology. ... I believe that rather than continuing to focus on past
models, regulators, scholars, nongovernmental organizations, community leaders,
and business executives would be best served by thinking about the global
corporation of the future and its implications for new approaches to regulation,
education, trade, and commerce.

...

Global Collaboration The spread of shared technologies and business
standards is creating an unprecedented opportunity for further global
integration, not just within each sector of society, but across them all. ...
Government leaders will find in business willing partners to reform health care
and education, secure the world’s trade lanes and electronic commerce, train and
enable the displaced and dispossessed, grapple with environmental problems and
infectious diseases, and tackle the myriad other challenges that globalization
raises.

Among the most urgent of the challenges facing emergent global institutions
in all spheres of society is global security and order. Without them, nothing is
possible. Companies will only invest in global systems of production if they
believe that the geopolitical relationships that enable their investments will
be stable and lasting. ...

One promising trend toward greater global stability is the growth of
horizontal, intergovernmental networks among the world’s regulators and
legislators. Built on shared professional standards and relationships among
cross-national communities of experts, these networks are interesting analogues
to new forms of organizing work in business, such as globally integrated supply
chains, commercial “ecosystems,” and open-source communities.

The alternative to global integration is not appealing. Left unaddressed,
discontent with globalization will only grow. People might ultimately choose to
elect governments that impose strict regulations on trade or labor, perhaps of a
highly protectionist sort. Worse, they might gravitate toward more extreme forms
of nationalism, xenophobia, and antimodernism. The shift from MNCs to globally
integrated enterprises provides an opportunity to advance both business growth
and societal progress. But it raises issues that are too big and too
interconnected for business alone or government alone to solve.

The globally integrated enterprise is a promising new actor on the world
stage. Now leaders in business, government, education, and all of civil society
must learn about its emerging dynamics and help it mature in ways that will
contribute to social, economic, and human progress around the planet.

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"The Globally Integrated Enterprise"

An email says:

You might wish to discuss this article on your blog. The article traces the
development of MNC’s up to the present. It is a celebration of the MNCs and
their positive impact on globalization.

Unfortunately, Palisiano (CEO of IBM) does not address the issue of corporate
power in distorting the market place and in controlling governments themselves
(think K Street). Nor does he seriously address the rising global inequality of
wealth (think sweat shop labor).

Nor does he address the issue of global warming, environmental decay, and
resource depletion—and the ability of MNC’s to cast doubt on the seriousness of
these issues. All of these issues are the dark underside of globalization, on
which I tend to focus. He frames the discussion in such a way as to avoid these
issues—most economists follow his lead.

Anyway, the article is worth discussing. Most economists would agree with
Palisano. ...

I'm a bit rushed until much later today and can't do much with this, so, quickly, here's the
beginning and end of the article along with a link to the whole thing.
Hopefully, some of you can provide analysis: